I spent a day with CONJOINED TWINS - Summary

Summary

The summary could be:

This is a transcript of a video where Anthony Padilla interviews two sets of conjoined twins and previously conjoined twins. He asks them about their experiences, challenges, misconceptions, and dreams. He learns that they have to deal with a lot of judgment, health issues, and compromises, but they also have a lot of support, humor, and harmony. He also finds out some interesting facts about conjoined twins, such as how they walk, drive, eat, and reproduce. He concludes that being conjoined requires a lot of strength and can bring people closer than ever before.

Facts

Some possible facts extracted from the text are:

1. Conjoined twins are identical twins whose early embryo only partially separates resulting in these individuals being born physically connected to one another, often sharing one or more internal organs.
2. The first famous pair of conjoined twins were two boys named Chang and Eng, born in 1811 Thailand attached to the sternum.
3. The first recorded successful separation of conjoined twins was carried out in 1689 in Switzerland.
4. Conjoined twins are extremely rare and occur only once in about every two hundred thousand live births, with seventy percent being born female.
5. Conjoined twins have a survival rate between five to twenty five percent, which means about 200 pairs are born alive each year, but only about half survive past their first birthday.
6. Carmen and Lupita are conjoined twins who share part of the digestive system, the reproductive system and the circulatory system, but have two separate lungs, hearts and stomachs. They each have one leg and are attached at the pelvis.
7. Kendra and Malia are formerly conjoined twins who were separated at the age of four. They were conjoined at the pelvis and shared a kidney, which Malia had to go into dialysis after the surgery and later received a transplant from her mother.
8. Carmen and Lupita have scoliosis and rods in their backs to keep their spine straighter. Lupita has severe respiratory issues because her scoliosis is crushing her lungs, which only work 27 percent of full capacity.
9. Carmen and Lupita have a seamstress who makes all of their tops for them by sewing two pieces together. They also use walkers or chairs with wheels to move around.
10. Kendra and Malia have one leg each and use different mobility devices such as crutches or prosthetics. Kendra also had surgery on her leg to realign it, but broke the screws when she tried using her crutches.
11. Carmen and Lupita learned how to drive a car with Carmen controlling the right leg and most of the functions, while Lupita does the turn signals.
12. Kendra and Malia faced some health issues after being separated, such as Malia needing a second kidney transplant and both of them breaking their titanium rods in their backs.
13. Carmen and Lupita face some challenges in finding or maintaining a job because people don't know what they can do or judge them based on their appearance.
14. Kendra and Malia have very different personalities and interests, but they learned to compromise and get along when they were conjoined. They also faced some rude comments or questions from people who didn't understand their situation.
15. Carmen and Lupita don't wish to be alone or separated because they have been together for 20 years and don't know anything else. They also have to deal with a lot of personal issues that they help each other with.
16. Kendra and Malia don't remember much of being conjoined, but they have some memories of playing with friends or biting each other when they fought. They also had a scavenger hunt before their surgery to make them less scared.
17. Carmen and Lupita want to work with animals because they don't judge or speak, unlike some people who have been rude or insensitive to them. They also want to have a farm with cows, an emu and a guard goose.
18. Kendra and Malia want to support a family in the future and also have a job that involves working with cows. They also think that people can learn from their situation that we are all made of flesh and blood and we should respect each other's differences.